Cienfuegos Struggles with Severe Workforce Shortage in Public Services

The Provincial Public Services Company of Cienfuegos has admitted to operating with only 51 street sweepers out of the 200 required, representing merely 25% of the necessary workforce to maintain cleanliness in the city known as "La Perla del Sur."

Oileder Tardío Rodríguez, the company's general director, revealed this during an interview on the radio program "El Triángulo de la Confianza." The program, aired this Friday on Radio Ciudad del Mar's digital platform, featured live calls from residents of various neighborhoods complaining about long-neglected dumps and streets rendered nearly impassable by waste accumulation.

"At this moment, we are functioning with only 25% of the needed street sweeping staff. Of the 200 sweepers required for the municipality of Cienfuegos, we only have 51," Tardío stated.

He emphasized that sweeping is, in his opinion, the most crucial task of the service: "Sweeping, we actually believe, is the most important activity, even more so than collection, because it completes the hygiene process."

Challenges Beyond Staffing

The personnel shortage is compounded by a chronic fuel scarcity that has forced a reduction from two daily garbage collections to just one since the onset of the energy crisis.

The company currently maintains only four regular routes—Punta Gorda, Historic Center, La Gloria, and a special route covering main avenues—with just two electric tricycles in operation, as replacing each battery costs around 960,000 Cuban pesos.

Intensive Cleanup Efforts

To tackle the waste accumulation, the company has initiated intensive neighborhood clean-up operations. In the Junco Sur district alone, over 900 cubic meters of waste were removed in four days; efforts concluded in Pueblo Grifo on Friday, where 656 cubic meters had been cleared. The plan is to continue with San Lázaro over the weekend, followed by La Juanita.

Callers to the radio program illustrated the depth of the issue. A resident from the San Lázaro Popular Council reported a dump site on Avenue 72, between streets 59 and 61, near a medical office, saying, "There's a garbage heap that's been there for over five months. The street is practically blocked. Not even a bicycle can get through."

Dulce María Quintana, delegate of constituency 12 in San Lázaro, described the situation in the Pastorita area on air: "The situation is very critical... there's a community dining room here, and right at its doors is a dumpsite."

Equipment Deterioration and Solutions

The director acknowledged that the waste crisis in Cienfuegos encompasses more than 80 critical points throughout the city, many of which are impossible to clean manually due to the mix of rubble and indiscriminately dumped waste.

The worsening condition of equipment exacerbates the situation. Of the 400 blue containers acquired in 2020, only about 60 remain; the rest have been stolen or burned.

In September, the official newspaper 5 de Septiembre documented the rise in vandalism and waste accumulation in iconic areas like José Martí Park.

As a partial remedy, the company is seeking support from non-state economic actors through the "transformation 49" initiative, approved in June, which allows contracting private businesses for community hygiene services.

Tardío confirmed that they have received proposals from two private entities and occasional fuel donations from this sector.

Cities such as Havana, Matanzas, Las Tunas, and Holguín also face streets littered with makeshift dumps, heightening the risk of vector proliferation and contagious diseases.